“Isaac sowed in a time of famine” (Genesis 26 v1-17)

If you’ve been in EBCG for a while, you’ll know that around this time of year we usually study a character from the Older Testament: if you’ve got good memories you may recollect (working backwards) Elisha, Abraham, Joshua, David, Joseph, Elijah, Moses and Nehemiah. Even though each of their contexts was so different from ours, and also that none of them had a living relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus, they can all still be a great inspiration to our faith. That magnificent chapter on the heroes of faith, Hebrews 11, begins by saying “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients (the men of old) were commended for”

So over the next few weeks we’re going to look at two more characters from the Older Testament, members of a famous trio who were frequently referenced together, not only in the Older but also the Newer Testament, as in these words of Peter in Acts 3 when he gave his defense of the healing of the crippled beggar saying “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus” (v12-13). The connecting of God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, linked this glorifying of Jesus through the healing, back to the historic faith of Israel. The trio were the anchor points of where it had all come from for those Jewish men who were listening to Peter, as they should equally be for we who also love the God of Israel - because the God of the newer Testament is the exact same God of the older Testament. Though the sending of His one and only Son to be the Saviour of the world marked Him for ever, it still didn’t change who He is. So the God we love and serve is the very same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Which is why it’s then good to know something about each of the three of them, and what their knowing of God meant to them.

Now Abraham often gets spoken about, as he was by two weeks ago by Joshua Turnil. It’s not surprising as Abraham gets a full 15 chapters in Genesis and is second only to Moses for references in the Newer Testament. If you’d like to remind yourself of the series we did on Abraham, then just click on the website sermons for October 2010. But we know much less about Jacob, and even less about Isaac, who apart from his narrow escape with his life when Abraham almost sacrificed him, only gets one solid chapter to himself, which comes in Genesis 26. So we’ll look at Isaac this week and then move on to Jacob next week.

But my hope is that the message we’re going to draw from Isaac is one that you will not move on from quickly, nor will we will as a church, because as we think about how Isaac sowed in a time of famine, and reaped abundantly as a result, we’ll see how this relates to a very specific situation in our church. Let’s read Genesis 26 v1-17

So where we meet up with Isaac is in the land of Gerar, where he was living nomadically. Hebrews 11 v9 speaks of how his father Abraham “By faith made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country, he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise” It was not that Isaac could only afford a tent: he was very wealthy, most likely even owning a significant amount of land, because when Abraham died we’re told in verse 5 of the previous chapter that “Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac”. So it was his choice to live as he did as a nomad, and in Hebrews 11 Isaac gets included under the same character of his father Abraham as “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God”. He also gets put in the group about which it was said “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking about the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were looking for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (v13-16)

So when we identify with the God of Israel, we identify with the God of 3 nomadic expatriates, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It’s very appropriate, because there’s a calling to every believer to live as a spiritual expatriate – Peter’s first epistle opens with the words “To God’s elect, strangers in the world”(1 Peter 1 v1) – our calling is to sit light on the things of this world, to have our treasure in heaven rather than on earth, and to have a flexibility and availability to God for whatever he might ask of us. So if we’re serious about walking forwards with God, it’s not long before we start learning about what it means in practice, “letting go and letting God”. This can touch all sorts of things in us as we start to learn about what relinquishment for the Lord can mean for real.

But for all we who are also doing expatriate life physically as well as spiritually, there’s a particular resonance about these words in Hebrews 11 about living as “aliens and strangers”. And if it does, we’re then in good company with Isaac was living it out just like Abraham had. Isaac was evidently a chip off the old block in a number of ways, not least in the way he repeated the lie that Abraham had made about Sarah only being his sister when actually she was his wife, Isaac who saying the same thing to King Abimelech about his wife Rebekah, and only just getting out of the fix his lie might have caused by the skin of his teeth. It’s a telling picture of how both the strengths and the weaknesses of parental example can be passed from one generation to another. But on the upside, what Isaac had taken on from his father Abraham, and which he passed on to Jacob was, notwithstanding his wealth, a nomadic lifestyle, with all the insecurities and uncertainties it involves, and also all the opportunities and availabilities it brings.

As it did for the hobbit called Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. You may remember how Frodo’s told he must leave his comfortable home in the Shire and travel to a distant land. When the initial shock wears off, he comments “Of course, I have sometimes thought about going away, but I imagined that as a kind of holiday, a series of adventures, ending in peace. But this would mean exile, a flight from danger into danger … As for where I am going, it would be difficult to give that away, for I have no clear idea for myself, yet … where am I to go? And by what shall I steer? What is to be my quest? … I feel very small, and very uprooted, and well – very desperate” At least some of us will recognize exactly how Frodo felt, because we’ve gone through a similar experience, which may not even be resolved for us yet. But in addition to our personal experience, we’ve most likely have also observed what’s gone on for others who’ve become expatriates. We’ll have seen how some became expatriates having got sent away from home because of the decisions of others. Maybe because of parents moving, or because an employer thought it would be such a great idea to move us from here to there. For others it’s because of our own intentional choice. Either for positive reasons, as we looked for adventure or opportunity. Or for negative reasons, perhaps to get away from something or someone we wanted to be free from. For others it sort of happened by accident: we only came for 3 months but that was now many years ago. There’s many reasons why people become expatriates, and with those many reasons come many consequences as well, not just for us, but for our children and maybe their children as well, as well as for those we leave behind, like for my great grand-parents who in 1920 watched my grand-parents set off to live in China with my mother and her two sisters and brother, apparently never to return. Quite something in those days.

But amidst all the ups and downs of expatriate life of the physical sort, for believers there’s the opportunity to experience and honour God’s leading in it all that it throws up. Which is what happened for Isaac when famine hit the land of Gerar in which he was. Famine was a big issue if you had lots of herds, as well as servants to feed. The obvious thing was simply to move on, down to Egypt where things were much better. But, just like Abraham had experienced the Lord appearing to him, the Lord also appeared to Isaac and said (v2) “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in the land for a while and I will be with you and will bless you”

That may be a word to some here today. Perhaps ou believed God told you to come here but it hasn’t led to the sort of prosperity you were hoping for, either financially or relationally or materially. Actually it’s tough. It may even seem like famine to you. And it offends you to have to be living in what’s turned out to be a land of famine rather than plenty. Like all experiences of being offended, whether its by another person or a situation, its very tempting to just get up and walk away, possibly making a show of it as we do. The thing is that when we do so, we may well be missing an opportunity for God either to deal with something in us, or to give us an experience of His amazing ability to provide, or to change the situation through us in a way it would never have been changed otherwise – and just possibly its all three .

I’ve shared before the shock Françoise and I had in the first curacy the Lord took us to after I was ordained into full-time ministry. He parked us in the middle of absolute squalor, Françoise with her French accent, me with my posh accent – and we couldn’t have looked more inappropriate. It was so squalid that often when I’d been visiting I’d have to change clothes immediately because my clothes had absorbed the stench of the house. One of my greatest fears was being made to drink something in a cup which had generations of previous drinks deeply etched into it. But looking back I don’t think it was outside of God’s will: because you get to have encounters with God that are only possible in places of desolation that can touch you inside, that can sustain you in ways you’d have never thought possible, and that can even leave a blessing behind after you’ve moved on.

Maybe it was the promise of the blessing that later generations would receive that convinced Isaac that he should stay in Gerar, notwithstanding the famine. Because the Lord then said to Isaac (v3) “For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your Father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed ... “ Because of the faithfulness of Isaac, the promise God gave to Abraham was passed down, not only to those men Peter was speaking to about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but even down to this day, even to we who are spiritually grafted into Israel. Such is the generational potential of how the way we respond to crises is not just an issue for ourselves, but for the generations that follow us, both for better and for worse. In Isaac’s case, on the downside in the way he lied just like Abraham had about his wife being his sister, and on the upside about staying in a place of famine when it would have been so much easier just to get up and go.

But what Isaac then did so impressively was to not only do what it took for God to turn the situation round, but to pass on an example that would inspire countless future generations of believers. Because in that time of famine (v12) “Isaac planted crops in the land”. Isaac did that which to the natural mind was crazy, but to the spiritual mind was the appropriate thing to do. Evidently he had seed, which could either have been used for food there and then, or could have been kept for when the planting conditions would be more favourable. But he dared to invest what he had. It was going to be around 2,000 years before Galatians 6v9 would be written, but Isaac’s actions echoed these words “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”. And that’s what Isaac reaped – an enormous harvest. In the same year “he reaped a hundredfold because the Lord blessed him”. The consequence was (v13) “the man became very rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy”. Indeed the extent of his wealth was so great that (v14) “He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him”. All because he chose to be obedient to the Lord’s calling to stay in a place of inconvenience if not considerable difficulty, rather than to take the easy way out and move on. And then because he chose to plant seed in a place of famine, trusting God for supernatural growth.

Now at this point I need for a few moments to make a very considerable change of course in the sermon to talk about not exactly a situation of famine, but still a situation of shortage that EBCG is facing, and to propose some planting that we should do, trusting the Lord for His supernatural growth. Because, as the church members already know, we’ve been in a financial deficit situation since the beginning of last year, which because of our reserves we’ve been able to absorb, waiting to see if it would resolve or continue. The answer we now have is that it has continued rather than resolved, and though we can still cover our expenses and maintain our missions giving for a while yet, we can’t continue doing so indefinitely.

Now I have to say I never thought I’d find myself needing to speak like this in EBCG, as up to relatively recently we’ve always covered our expenses or made a surplus. But as you most likely know, times have changed in Geneva over recent years, and its not surprising that this gets reflected into our church finances. So candidly there’s only three options: - either we divert monies we give from missions into covering our regular expenses which is something I don’t think any of us would wish to do - or we reduce our staffing level, which again I don’t think we’d want to do - or we increase our giving. We’ll be writing to you all in the next week or so with the details, but in a nutshell we’ve had a shortfall this year of towards chf8,000 a month, which is towards chf100,000 for the year. Against this we’ve also had some generous special gifts for which we’re very grateful, that have reduced the deficit significantly to maybe around chf60,000 for the year, but candidly we need either some more special gifts, or an overall average increase of giving of at least 10%, and more towards 20% if we are to maintain our missions giving and maintain our staffing level.

In one way it’s a problem, and in another way it’s an opportunity for us as a church to stay in the place God has called us to, which is to be a church which amongst other things puts significant amounts into missions. And if this means having to trust God in a much more hands-on way in the future, then that’s no bad thing. So over by the door, there’s another board with another thermometer, right where the board for Sundar Dhoka used to be. It’s time once again to do some more special planting, this time to provide a very much needed vehicle for Zimkids, that will cost chf20-25,000. We’ve already got chf6,000 allocated to Zimkids from the February AGM so we’re part way there already, and we’d love to be able to give it to them as a Christmas present, perhaps even an early Christmas present!

Though it may seem crazy to natural thinking to first tell the church we need giving to increase by 10-20% on average and then say at the same time we’d like to purchase a chf25,000 vehicle for a missions project. But this is our way as a church of planting in a time of famine and trusting God for a supernatural harvest. It’s also to give you an opportunity if you’re finding yourself facing any form of famine to do some planting of your own, as unto the Lord. Because whilst we’re not looking to get into that wrong understanding of material prosperity, we are looking to model as a church and experience as individual believers the testimony of the man of God in Psalm 1 who is described as being “Like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers”

The root of the Hebrew word used for ‘prosper’ isn’t about self-indulgent accumulation: it’s about a “successful pushing forwards”. Which doesn’t mean that there wont be all sorts of adversities to overcome: as we were thinking about when we looked at Romans 8 a few weeks back, if you’re going to be more than a conqueror, you’re most likely going to first of all have to face something which needs conquering. But the net outcome will be a total contrast with those who are not doing it as unto the Lord, that the second half of Psalm 1 describes saying “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish”

This was the experience that Isaac had, of a massive abundance resulting from him sowing into the situation of famine that he chose to stay in,, simply trusting God for the outcome. The consequence was that it made the Philistines very envious, the king even asking Isaac to move away, because he’d become too powerful for them. In a sense this should be the goal of all our witness for the Lord, that the light we reflect should not only be noticed, but that unbelievers recoil and ask us to move back a bit because we’re shining too brightly for them.

Then follows another picture of Isaac’s availability to the Lord in his expatriate, nomadic life, because now this was a great place to stay with such brilliant harvests. But instead, in sensitivity to the Philistines he moved away from where he was to the valley of Gerrar and settled there. So Isaac was free to stay when the Lord told him to, and he was also free to move when it became inappropriate to stay any longer. Those words from Isaiah 55 v12 that “You shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace” can be a measure for us, as they would apparently have been for Isaac had they been written then, about the distinctive sense of freedom God can give us when its His time for us to move to the next season of our lives. Moving on is not always easy, but it’s very different when our eyes are on our destination as the heavenly city, and we have the Lord’s peace in doing so

In doing so, Isaac found himself in the next season of his life with a very different assignment, then doing something very different from planting in a famine. Next up he was opening the wells his father Abraham had dug, but which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham had died, very intentionally giving them the same names Abraham had. It had been an act of aggression by the Philistines to stop up Abraham’s wells as water was so scarce in that region, but evidently the Philistines now left Isaac alone to do this work of restoration. Such can also be what follows from daring to sow in a time of famine, which can be the subsequent scope to do acts of restoration because of the spiritual space we now have to do them.

So there’s the challenge of Isaac’s life in its availability to God to stay somewhere when it’s uncomfortable, or to move when He says: to buck the trend of rational thinking and do make a great investment of faith or to simply do works of restoration. It’s about living in a way that Hebrews summarized, for the group which included Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who “were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. They were looking for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” May we rise to the challenge, individually and as a church as we also love and serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who is also the God of Israel.